music to history to museum to Portugal

[calimac]

Prior to writing my recent article on Symphony Silicon Valley, I had hoped to do a little research on the history of the old San Jose Symphony, as I was discussing that as well. I realized that I had no knowledge of this orchestra prior to George Cleve's appointment as music director in 1972. Yet it claimed to date back to 1879.

Today I was finally able to meet with some boxes of the orchestra's archives, now at the San Jose History Museum. Where I found that the 1879 date is stretching it. A group calling itself the San Jose Symphony, but having only about 15 players, did perform in that year, but its continued existence was more than spotty. Its continuous history only goes back as far as the founding of a Symphony Association in 1937, and for years afterwards the orchestra was an unpaid scratch group that played only one or two concerts a year, much like some of the obscurer orchestras around today.

I did get to see some of the old programs, including ones from concerts I remember in the 70s and 80s, and yes, Aaron Copland and John Cage, as well as Alan Hovhaness, Virgil Thomson, and Cesar Chavez, came for the bicentennial season in 1975-6, which is what really put the orchestra on the map.

The History Museum, out on Senter Road, is an interesting place. Tucked in the back of a park, it's a re-created downtown neighborhood of olden days, with replica or possibly original buildings moved there, and a couple streets with old streetlights, and everything. But too many vacant lots, and a lack of street life, make it look a bit unreal, like the western town in that terrible Star Trek episode. The central building is an old hotel, and the museum archives are in the non-public area on the second floor.

Things may be livelier there on Saturday, when according to a flyer I picked up they're holding a Dia de Portugal Festival. Portuguese food, it says: that means linguisa. I may go to this. cynthia1960, how about you?

Comments

[sturgeonslawyer.livejournal.com]

Apropos of absolutely nothing ...

What is the difference between old days and olden ones? Inquiring minds want to know.

[asimovberlioz.livejournal.com]

I almost had the chance to study conducting with Carlos Chavez, but he died and my university's regular conductor (Laszlo Varga) cancelled his planned sabbatical year and stayed on.

[(Anonymous)]

This is fun to read ... because those programs you found from 1975-76, and then a good number of years onward from there, were mine! When I was music librarian I was shocked to find that no one had been saving a copy of each program (or anything else, as far as I know ... did they have reviews there?) so I brought all of mine in and put them in order. Now I regret it, as I would love to have those with me. Ah well. I'm glad someone actually looked at them! (And I still don't save programs, so I suppose I shouldn't begrudge anyone those old ones.)

I wonder who decided to donate all of that material to the History Museum. I thought that perhaps we players would be getting the programs with all the music we purchased when the symphony crashed.

So can anyone go see this stuff? You say it's in a "non-public area" so I'm assuming not.

Ah the stories I could tell about the composers/conductors from 75-76. But I suppose it's best to keep my mouth shut! :-)

-patty

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Ah, that explains why there were no programs from Cleve's first two years, very few from before then, and not many after he left, either. I'd have thought SJS would have saved copies of its own programs, but apparently not. Nobody else did: the city library never saw fit to.

Apparently all the SJS paperwork - it's mostly administrative stuff, I was told - was donated to the city museum when the organization folded. It's not public in the sense that you can't just wander in and look at it. It's library archival: explain your research interests on the phone to the archivist, make an appointment, and you're welcome to sit at a table all afternoon looking through boxes, which is what I did.

"Are you a musician yourself?" the archivist asked. "No, a critic," I said.

[(Anonymous)]

Yep ... we had someone called an historian (I think it was someone on the Auxiliary.) but I'm not sure what that person actually did. I went through boxes I found in the music library that did include some pre-Cleve programs (did you find those?) and tried to put everything into some sort of order. I also put everything I found on computer for our performance records, but I suspect that was all lost. Such is life.

I found the older programs to be fun reading. It was interesting to see what they put together, and how you might get only one movement from a symphony rather than the whole thing. I hear that was actually fairly common back then.

Ah, thinking about SJS makes me a wee bit sad. It almost feels like it was from a past life.

[wild-patience.livejournal.com]

I remember singing in the Carlos Chavez concert. He was very easy on the choir: "Chorus good. You go home now."

What I think should be mentioned, too, is that many of those 1970s programs list violist Lorraine Hunt (I don't think she had her nickname, Lori, on the program). Opera buffs know her now as Lorraine Hunt Lieberman. I will never forget when as a freshman, I attended someone's master's recital where they were re-enacting some obscure baroque piece. I knew she was a violist. I had no idea she sang better than all the voice majors. When she opened her mouth, my jaw dropped.

[wild-patience.livejournal.com]

Er, clarification, she was one of the singers in the baroque performance master's piece.

[(Anonymous)]

Heh ... Carlos Chavez. Oh yes. We played the Three Cornered Hat selections which includes the big English horn cadenza. He conducted the entire solo, which is NOT how it is normally done. I was young and naive and hadn't a clue that wasn't the way it was supposed to go. People came up to me after and patted me on the back, giving me sympathetic looks. That's when I found out how it was normally conducted. George came up to me and said something like "Don't worry about it." Funny, remembering that!

And I was at that same SJSU concert too! I remember, too, Dr. Vernon Reed's mouth dropping open when he heard Lori sing ... similar to your reaction! He was stunned and he turned to a few of us and said something about "Where did THAT come from?!" I guess he didn't know she could sing at all. What a wonderful musician, yes? She used to sing and play viola during Nutcracker when the snowflake tune came in. She came back to sing with San Jose Symphony (RIP) when we did Messiah one year (with G. Cleve). Again, a stunning performance. (Did you sing in that?)

She played viola in the Midsummer Mozart orchestra the first few years of its life, and I played a few with her. Ultra-talented woman, that's for sure.

-patty